The station's construction was on a grand scale: a site was acquired at a cost of £473,000 (£) in the heart of Nottingham's city centre; negotiations for the land acquisition had taken three years. The construction called for the demolition of whole streets of some 1,300 houses, 24
public houses, and
St. Stephen's Church, Bunker's Hill, following which about of
sandstone was excavated from the site. The site measured about in length from north to south and had an average width of , with a tunnel at each end for access. The
Great Central Railway and
Great Northern Railway shared the station; they split into two lines at
Weekday Cross junction. The two owners failed to reach agreement on the station's name; the Great Central naturally wanted it called "Central", a proposition the Great Northern, still smarting from the incursion into its territory made by the London Extension, would not accept. The two railway companies operated separate booking offices, the Great Central issuing tickets reading
Nottingham Central, whilst the Great Northern's window bore the name "Nottingham Joint St'n". In the 1898 Royal Atlas of England, the station was recorded as the "Grt Central & Grt Northern Joint Central Station". The
town clerk resolved the situation by suggesting the name "Nottingham Victoria" to reflect the fact that the planned opening date coincided with
Queen Victoria's birthday; this was readily accepted at a meeting of the Nottingham Joint Station Committee on 12 June. Nottingham Victoria station was officially opened without ceremony in the early hours of 24 May 1900, over a year after the commencement of services on the new railway line. The first service to call at the station was a Great Central express from
Manchester London Road to , which pulled in at 1:12 a.m.; it was followed fifteen minutes later by a Great Central express travelling in the opposite direction. ==Station building==